The proposed research is designed to investigate the effects of early postnatal handling as an environmental manipulation which may attenuate the adverse behavioral and physiological consequences of prenatal ethanol exposure. This research will examine the possible mechanisms mediating the hormonal hyperresponsiveness to stressors observed in animals prenatally exposed to ethanol (E) as well as the possible influence of postnatal handling on these mechanisms. In addition, experiments will investigate the correspondence between prenatal ethanol-induced alterations in behavior and HPA activity. Toward achievement of these aims, experiments will involve behavioral and hormonal assessments. Tasks involving behavioral inhibition (conditioned taste aversion) and spatial learning (Morris water maze) will explore further the learning and/or performance deficits previously demonstrated in E animals as well as investigate the correspondence between behavior and HPA activity. Functional manipulations of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis will examine possible mechanisms of the altered hormonal responsiveness to stress observed in E animals as well as explore the effects of handling on this HPA hyperresponsiveness. Lastly, experiments will investigate the effects of prenatal ethanol exposure and postnatal handling on activity of the HPA axis under basal conditions to determine if altered steady state activity contributed to HPA differences following stress.